1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a template inspection method, and a manufacturing method for a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a manufacturing process of semiconductor devices, attention has been paid on an optical imprint method for transferring a pattern of an original plate onto a substrate to which the pattern is to be transferred, as a technique of achieving both forming a fine pattern equal to or smaller than 100 nanometers and mass production of devices, for example. This optical imprint method transfers a pattern onto a light-curing organic-material layer (resist layer) coated on a substrate such as a wafer, by contacting to the resist layer a template formed with a pattern to be transferred, and by curing the resist layer by irradiating light in this state (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-68411 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-194142).
Particularly, the optical imprint method is most expected to be applied to semiconductor lithography. The imprint has characteristics such that it uses a template of the same magnification and it is a contacting process with an organic material. Therefore, defect management of imprint has been difficult. Particularly, defect inspection of a template is believed to be one of the most important research issues of imprint.